Abstract

The paper reviews previous ideas on the glaciation of Macquarie Island and givesan account of glacial landforms observed during a brief visit in 1972. The field evidenceindicates that Macquarie Island was not completely overridden in an easterly directionby an ice sheet which developed on a broad submarine shelf to the west as advocatedby L.R. Blake (in Mawson 1943). Local plateau, valley and cirque glaciers accumulatedin depressions, basins and valleys on the surface of the plateau and at theirmaximum extent occupied about 40% of the island. A migration of the Antarctic Convergencefrom 150 - 200 km south of the island to north, of the island would depress sealevel temperatures by 3-4 degrees; an amount adequate to account for the modest glaciation ofthe plateau surface. The majority of plant and animal species probably immigrated priorto the last glaciation, which is of Wisconsin age, and survived in non-glaciated areasof the present island and adjacent shelf to the west.